Give it a go and be rewarded
Kiwi expat David Carruthers shares his tips on what every visitor should experience when in China
It’s been 10 years since David Carruthers packed his bags and travelled 9700km from New Zealand to the city of Xiangtan in Hunan, China for a university teaching position. He shares what it’s been like living in China during pandemic lockdowns, why highspeed trains are a traveller’s dream and, once the country opens to travellers again, the three things you must do while visiting.
What do you love most about Xiangtan City?
Its smallness (in China terms). I love Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and those other large cities but there’s something peaceful about my “countryside” home of five million people.
What are some of your favourite local spots?
Xiangtan is Mao’s birthplace, in the small town of Shao Shan, not far from the city outskirts. We go there to see Mao’s shrine and walk through his ancestral home. Go there, if only to see billions of people genuflect.
What was China’s Covid-19 response like?
Organised and draconian! We have lived with lockdowns for the last two years. In the next few days I will receive the China booster shot. I hope this allows me to travel internationally again.
What is life like now?
We are comfortable with the current status. We do what we can with regard to masks, social distancing, and logging in on our phones at every stop-point. This is normal life for us. We do what we’re told to do. This is China! Everyday life here is normal. No restrictions apart from masks and phone logging. We can live with this.
Once travel to China is open again, what is something Kiwis should know before visiting?
My advice would be the same thing I teach my Chinese university students here before they travel to the West for further study; live with the people, eat the food, speak the language.
You can’t understand a different culture until you do the above three. Learn a few Chinese phrases but be prepared to be laughed at for your pronunciation, in a kindly way. Eat the food; you will annoy locals if you don’t and fair enough too! They have spent thousands of years developing their special cuisine. Some foods are not particularly palatable to Westerners but give it a go and you will eventually enjoy the bonhomie that follows. The food is good.
What are the must-do activities or experiences tourists should do?
Anything. Life here is a cultural smorgasbord, perhaps an assault on the senses. Go to Mao’s ancestral home, but really, just experience China.
Fortunately, that is easy thanks to the highspeed trains, which make anywhere in China accessible. For example, to drive by car to Changsha (Hunan’s capital), from my home takes 90 minutes but by high-speed train, it takes 12 minutes.
Do you know a Kiwi overseas who would like to share their story? Email travel@nzherald.co.nz with Life After Lockdown in the subject line